Comments on: Who Will Buy Windows Home Server?

By: Will

Will — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 12:48:39 +0000

Joe: within an hour of posting this entry, I found my problem. A stray line in a config file that was preventing my Windows PC from connecting to the Linux PC, even though it could “see” it. I’m not sure why some members of the Linux community believe that it is ready for the general public. The Ubuntus of the Linux world have helped a great deal, but I can’t imagine any non-techie using Linux as their main PC without some sort of techie friend or family member ready to troubleshoot the issues that they will run into.

NCharles: I got into a long argument with someone else about the merits of WHS, and I cited the features you are talking about. Specifically, I discussed the disk extender, only to have it shut down with “I would rather have a hardware RAID.” Believe me, I see the advantage of WHS and I will have one of those boxes when it is available.

By: NCharles

NCharles — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 15:51:44 +0000

WHS isn’t just a just fileserver, you could probably duplicate that in Linux if you really wanted to. What whould be harder to duplciate is the backup capability built into WHS. It backs up all the PCs on your network (that you’ve installed the WHS client on) and does so in way that it doesn’t keep more than one copy of identical files–even if they’re from different PC’s; e.g. all the windows system files. It also allows for remote control of any of your PC’s (or the WHS) from anywhere you can get an Internet connection. Finally, the real killer is the disk extender technology that allows the user to add disks (internal or external) that act like RAID mirror, but without any of the hassle! Once you’ve added the disk to your WHS, it takes care of everything else.

I use Linux on the desktop (but can’t convert the rest of the family) and tend to avoid Microsoft products, but WHS is a killer product that may convert me back to Windows!

By: Joe Grossberg

Joe Grossberg — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 13:47:40 +0000

Don’t get disheartened — people have been claiming for a decade now, that Linux is suitable for non-geeks.

In fact, if you look at the intro to O’Reilly’s “Learning Emacs”, it talks about which chapters are suggested reading for non-techs. Like they picture a receptionist writing memos and faxes in emacs!

I used Linux from 2000-2003 and couldn’t print once. I mentioned this on Slashdot and got reamed for being ignorant about how hard it is for the Linux developers to get device driver info from the manufacturers and other (legitimate) excuses that make zero difference to end users.